Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is an anomaly. Typically, those who serve in such positions are not themselves under indictment for felony crimes.
But Paxton indeed has been indicted for securities crimes that could put him in prison for the rest of his life if convicted. His ethics have been put into question by his refusal to defend a state agency against a political group that has loaned him money; he was even once caught stealing another lawyer’s expensive pen.
To be clear, this is the man considered the “top law enforcement official in Texas.” Yet he cannot serve on a jury or even buy a gun because of the indictments against him.
He is an embarrassment to Texas and his colleagues in the Republican Party.
We do have a choice, however, and that is Democrat Justin Nelson, an adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Law, partner in a Houston law firm and former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
There is nothing partisan or political about Nelson’s agenda: He has campaigned on ethics, restoring integrity to the Texas Attorney General’s Office and seeing that no one, of any party or persuasion, gets a pass to violate the law. He doesn’t want to instill massive changes, just bring the office back to its rightful position of fairly and honestly enforcing the rule of law.
This is one of those choices that should be easy for all Texas voters but Nelson’s election is no slam-dunk. We understand it may be difficult for some Republicans to stray from party-line voting, but it would be to our state’s great benefit to do so in this race. It is time for Texas to clean up the attorney general’s office.
